Monday, October 18, 2010

Chard in Lard

Tonight's supper was certainly not a Meatless Monday but, since we try to do our meatless meals on Wednesdays and Fridays I'm going to skip the side dish of guilt. That is what Lent is for...

The whole menu was roast lamb with garlic, rosemary, thyme, and marjoram; baked potatoes; roasted acorn squash; green salad; and chard in lard. If you are one of the dozen people who regularly read my blog, you may recall that I have something of a love affair with lard.


This is a super simple side dish, loaded with nutrients and flavor.

1 bundle of fresh organic red or rainbow chard
1 puck of lard (about 3/4 of a cup)
salt
a clove of garlic, pressed or finely minced
a little butter to finish

wash and dry your chard, cutting off the biggest, woodiest pieces of stem then chopping it coarsely (I lay mine out on the cutting board all stacked up and hack it about every 2-2.5 inches)

melt your lard in a large skillet over medium flame. When the lard is melted, toss in the chard and let it cook until well wilted. Then add the garlic and salt. You want the garlic to cook but not burn. pop a pat of butter on top and serve hot.

Honestly, sometimes I make this just for me and eat the entire bundle. It's so, so good.

2 comments:

Laurie Constantino said...

Chard with Lard, oh yeah. Not that I hesitate to use fat, but it looks like you've got extra in the pan and 3/4 cup sounds like a lot. Did you use that amount because you have the lard stored in pucks that size? Or is there a cooking reason that you are using extra fat?

Steph said...

Laurie- That's just my guess on puck size. Plus, when you first put that chard in it looks so BIG!